Pile fabric floor covering



Sept 28, 1965 w. T. HARRISON ETAL 3,208,482

PILE FABRIC. FLOOR COVERING Original Filed Jan. 6, 1964 United States Patent O p 3,208,482 l PILE FABRIC FLOOR COVERINGl Wayne T. Harrison, Enfield, and Raymond J. Carrigan, Thompsonville, Coun., assignors to Bigelow-Sanford, Inc.,-Thompsonville, Conn., a corporation of Delaware Continuation of application Ser. No. 335,820, Jan. 6, 1964. This application Mar. 29, 1965, Ser. No.

1` Claim. (Cl. 139-4399) The present application is a continuation of our prior application Ser. No. 335,820, iled Jan. 6, 1964, entitled Pile Fabric Floor Covering.

The present invention relates to pile fabric floor covering such as carpets andrugs, herein for convenience called carpet, and more particularly to an Axminster type carpet of a novel construction which can be produced rapidly and at low cost. y

The novel carpet construction of the invention provides a carpet which may be of exceptionally low cost, for carpet employing yarns and threads of normal weights and constructions, yet nevertheless have an attractive appearance and good wearing qualities.

An object of the invention is to provide a simplified Axminster carpet construction providing good pile coverage of the backing? structure.

A further object of the' invention is to provide an Axminster type carpet which is inexpensive but which is serviceable and of attractive appearance.

Other objects, featuresand advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, in which description reference is made to the accompanying drawings, wherein FIG. 1 is a schematic view in perspective illustrating the fabric construction; v

FIG'. 2 is a warpwise vertical sectional view on line 2-2 of FIG. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 3 is a weftwise vertical sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1 and looking n the direction of the arrows.

In accordance with the invention the carpet is formed of a pile face and a base or backing fabric consisting of wefts and binder warp threads, the wefts lying substantially in a single plane and being distributed warpwise of the fabric in pairs and the binder warp threads being under substantially equal tension and distributed weftwise of the fabric in two sets, one of said sets consisting of pairs of binder warp threads woven under alternate pairs of wefts and above the intermediate pairs of wefts and the other set of binder warp threads being disposed between adjacent pairs of said rst set of binder warp threads and woven above said alternate pairs of wefts and beneath said intermediate pairs of wefts. The pile face of the fabric is formed of separate lengths of pile yarn in the form of tufts woven in weftwise rows under one only of the two wefts forming each of said alternate pairs of wefts, each tuft having two legs, one extending upwardly from the backing between said two wefts of an alternate pair and the other extending upwardly between said one weft and the adjacent intermediate pair of wefts. The pile tufts are also arranged in warpwise rows, each row lying between the two binder warp threads of a pair which pass beneath said alternate pairs of wefts. All of the pile tufts are woven under wefts which lie at the same side of the alternate pairs of wefts, so that the weft-wise rows are woven under alternate wefts of said alternate pairs of wefts.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing, the backing of the fabric of the invention comprises binder warp threads 2, 4 and 6 interwoven with wefts 8, 10, 12 and 14. The wefts are distributed warpwise of the fabric in *ice pairs, each two adjacent wefts 8 and 10' forming an a1- ternate pair and two adjacent wefts 12 and 14 forming the intermediate pairs. l

The binder warp threads are distributed weftwise of the fabric in two sets, a rst set consisting of the binder warp threads 4 and 6 andthe s'econd set consisting of the binder warp threads 2. The binder warp threads of the first set are arranged in pairs, each pair consisting of a binder warp thread 4 and the binder warp thread 6 adjacent to it, which do not have a binder warp thread disposed therebetween.

The binder warp threads 4 and 6 are woven under the alternate pairs of wefts, that is, under the wefts 8 and 10, and are woven above the intermediate pairs of wefts, that is, above the wefts 12 and 14. Thus the two binder warp threads of a pair are interwoven with the wefts in thersame manner. V

The binder warp threads of the second set, thatl is the binder warp threads 2, are interwoven with the wefts oppositely to the binder warp threads of the first set, that is, they are woven above the wefts 8, 10', and below the wefts 12, 14. l The binder warp threads of the second set are distributed, weftwise of the fabric, so that one such binder warp thread 2 lies between each two adjacent pairs of binder warp threads 4, 6 of the first set.

The pile face of the fabric is formed from lengths of pile yarns inserted into the backing fabric by the Axminster weaving procedure, forming warpwise rows of pile tufts 16, 18 and 20, each tuft being formed from an individual length of yarn. The tufts 16 constitute weftwise rows, as do the tufts 18, the tuftsv 20V constituting other weftwise rows. Each pile tuft is woven beneath a single one only of the two wefts which constitute an alternate pair of wefts, in the embodiment shown, beaneath the wefts 10. Each pile tuft, as is` customary in Axminster construction, comprises two legs. The leg 22 of each tuft extends upwardly from the backing between the wefts 8 and 10. The leg 24 extends upwardly from the backing between' the weft 10 about which the tuft yarn is looped and the adjacent weft 12, of the adjacent pair of intermediate wefts 12, 14.

Each warpwise row of pile tufts lies between the two adjacent binder warp threads 4, 6 constituting a pair of binder warp threads of the first set. There is a weftwise row of pile tufts woven under each of the wefts 10 and a warpwise row of pile tufts between each two adjacent warps 4, 6. The binder warp threads 4, 6 which lie on opposite sides of a warpwise row of pile tufts constitute a pair, as that term is used herein. They are shown in FIG. 1 more widely spaced from each other than they are in the actual carpet, for clarity of illustration.

In weaving the carpet, the wefts are inserted in pairs 8, 10 and 12, 14 by a needle, into sheds formed of the binder warp threads 2, 4 and 6 by suitable heddles, as is well understood in the Axminster carpet art. The pile tufts are placed in the fabric by means of a conventional tube frame, the two wefts 8, 10 being separated in any suitable manner to accommodate the tubes of the tube frame during the placing of the tufts, as for example by means of a finger at the side of the loom opposite the needle side which is moved forwardly to displace one of the two wefts of the pair from the other of the pair, as in the Davis patent, No. 1,341,417, for example.

The disposition of the leg 22 of the pile tufts between the two wefts 8 and 10 of a jointly inserted pair causes the pile yarn to be pinched by these two wefts during the subsequent beat-up of the fabric, giving good tuft bind. Also, the adjacent binder warp yarns 4, 6 of a pair being similarly interwoven with the wefts and disposed immediately adjacent the pile tufts .serve further to pinch the pile yarn, but in a direction transversely of the effect of the wefts 8 and 10,v further contributing to good tuft bind.

3 The pile tufts have their bights exposed at the back of the fabric so that they are readily reached by an adhesive back coating, if one is employed, to further enhance the tuft bind and the integrity of the fabric.

It has been found that the carpet construction of the invention provides good coverage of the backing structure and an attractive pile face in fabrics in which the weftwise rows per inch are greatly reduced to reduce cost, even to as low as 3 rows per inch, the pile yarns and binder warp threads and the wefts being of normal weights and constructions. The action of the pair of wefts 8, 10 on the pile tuft leg 22 tends to cause this leg to stand upright above the fabric giving good coverage of the backing in the vicinity of the weft pair 8, 10. On the other hand, the pile tuft leg 24 tends to lean over in the direction toward the adjacent weft pair 12, 14, that is, to the right as seen in FIG. 2, providing good coverage for the remaining wefts, that is the wefts of the weft pairs 12, 14. It will be understood that the individual fibers of the pile tuft yarns tend to separate and spread out at `the free ends of the legs, enhancing the coverage of the backing. The manner of weaving the pairs of tuftengaging binder warp threads 4, 6 wherein they pass above the weft pair 12, 14 which is located adjacent the pile tuft leg 24, tends to provide sufficient support for the tuft leg 24 so that it does not unduly lean over the weft pair 12, 14. At the same time, the construction provides good pattern definition, due, it is believed, to the fact that the tuft legs 22 are not constrained to lean unduly warpwise, to either one side or the other. As the pile tufts are looped about only an individual weft, and since that weft is in effect an upper or face weft, the expensive pile yarn is employed to the utmost advantage, with as little as possible buried in the backing.

We claim:

An Axminster pile fabric floor covering which may be woven on an Axminster loom, comprising a backing of wefts and binder warp threads, the wefts being distributed warpwise of the fabric in pairs and lying substantially in a single plane, and the binder warp threads being under substantially equal tension and distributed weftwise of the fabric in two sets, one set of binder warp threads consisting of spaced pairs of binder warp threads woven under alternate pairs of wefts and above the intermediate pairs of wefts, the other set of binder warp threads consisting of spaced binder warp threads woven above said alternate pairs of wefts and under said intermediate pairs of wefts and disposed with such a binder warp thread between each two adjacent pairs of said one set of binder warp threads, and a pile face formed of pile tufts, each tuft being formed from a separate length of pile yarn separately inserted in the fabric and being woven under one only of the two wefts forming one of said alternate pairs of wefts and being raised above the backing between said one weft and each of the adjacent wefts to provide two pile tuft legs, one said leg extending upwardly between the two wefts of the pair and the other said leg extending upwardly between said one weft and the adjacent intermediate pair of wefts, the pile tufts being disposed in warpwise and weftwise rows, the warpwiseL rows each lying between the two binder warp threads of a said pair of binder warp threads and having a pile tuft at each of said alternate pairs of wefts and no pile tuft at any of said intermediate pairs of wefts, and the weftwise rows being woven only under alternate wefts of said alternate pairs of wefts, whereby, due to the symmetrical disposition of the wefts engaging each such one tuft leg and the symmetrical disposition of the warp threads engaging each such one tuft leg, all said one tuft legs tend to stand upright to provide good coverage of said alternate pairs of wefts and whereby, due to the unsymmetrical engagement of each said other tuft leg by the adjacent wefts, all said other tuft legs tend to lean toward, and over the adjacent intermediate pair of wefts to provide good coverage of said intermediate pairs of wefts.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 669,634 3/01 Grosvenor 139-7 2,783,776 3/57 Lyle 139-401 2,974,690 3/61 Park et al. 139-391 3,083,737 4/63 Mestral 139-46 3,126,919 3/64 Matthews et al 139-399 DONALD W. PARKER, Primary Examiner. 

